System that automatically infers equipment details from controller configuration details

ABSTRACT

A program for light commercial building system (LCBS) solutions. Solutions and other systems may incorporate lightweight alerting service, auto-adjustment of gateway poll rates based on the needs of various consuming applications, detecting loss of space comfort control in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, HVAC capacity loss alerting using relative degree days and accumulated stage run time with operational equivalency checks, and HVAC alerting for loss of heat or cool capacity using delta temperature and dependent system properties. Also, incorporated may be triggering s subset of analytics by automatically inferring HVAC equipment details from controller configuration details, ensuring reliability of analytics by retaining logical continuity of HVAC equipment operational data even when controllers and other parts of the system are replaced, and an LCBS gateway with workflow and mechanisms to associate to a contractor account.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure pertains to building system controls. Thedisclosure particularly pertains to, for example, alerts, detectingcomfort, heating and cooling capacity, analytics, and gateways.

SUMMARY

(80) The disclosure reveals a system with analytics. It may be a systemfor triggering a subset of analytics by automatically inferringequipment details from the controller configuration details. The systemmay incorporate a controller and, for example, heating or coolingequipment. The system may incorporate other equipment similar to theheating or cooling equipment. The controller may have configuration dataabout the heating or cooling equipment. The configuration data mayincorporate descriptions about types of the heating or cooling equipmentand subsystems of the heating or cooling equipment. The configurationdata may be used by the system to determine which fault detectionalgorithms are relevant to the types of heating or cooling equipment andthe subsystems of the heating or cooling equipment. The system mayfurther incorporate a cloud subsystem connected to the controller. Thecloud subsystem may provide the fault detection algorithms relevant tothe types of heating or cooling equipment and the subsystems of theheating or cooling equipment.

The fault detection algorithms may incorporate pre-defined triggerconditions. If the trigger conditions are met of a fault detectionalgorithm for one or more types of the heating or cooling equipment andsubsystems of the heating or cooling equipment, then the cloud subsystemmay automatically start the fault detection algorithm for the one ormore types of the heating or cooling equipment and subsystems of theheating or cooling equipment. The fault detection algorithm may then acton runtime and operational data from the one or more types of theheating or cooling equipment and subsystems of the heating or coolingequipment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a generation and alert reporting system;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an auto-adjustment mechanism for gateway pollrates;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a mechanism for detecting a loss of space comfortcontrol in a system;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a heating, ventilation and air conditioningcapacity loss alerting system using relative degree days and accumulatedrun time;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a heating, ventilation and air conditioningalerting system for loss of heat or cool capacity using a deltatemperature;

FIG. 6 is a diagram of triggering analytics by inferring details abouttarget equipment like, for example, heating, ventilation and airconditioning equipment, from details of a controller configuration;

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are diagrams about retaining logical continuity tovirtually any type of controller, such as heating, ventilation and airconditioning equipment operational data even when controllers arereplaced; and

FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 are diagrams that relate to registering a gatewaywith a building account.

DESCRIPTION

The present system and approach may incorporate one or more processors,computers, controllers, user interfaces, wireless and/or wireconnections, and/or the like, in an implementation described and/orshown herein.

This description may provide one or more illustrative and specificexamples or ways of implementing the present system and approach. Theremay be numerous other examples or ways of implementing the system andapproach.

A term heat exchanger may refer to a device used to transfer heat amongone or more fluids. A heat exchanger may be used for heating, orcooling, such as air conditioning. The term heat exchanger may beregarded as having greater breadth, larger coverage or be moreencompassing than a term heating or cooling system. The term heating orcooling system may be regarded as having greater breadth, largercoverage or be more encompassing than a term heating, ventilation andair conditioning (HVAC) system. A term equipment may be regarded ashaving greater breadth, larger coverage or be more encompassing than theabove-noted terms. Equipment may also refer to one or more items fromlighting, fire, security, video, air control, and audio systems. Theequipment may incorporate one or more other systems. The above-notedterms may have various meanings in different contexts.

Upper and lower case letters, with or without associated numbers, may beone or more items of a group comprising numbers, numerical values,predetermined numbers, and predetermined numerical values.

A lightweight alerting system may be noted. Independent heating,ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) mechanical contractors thatprovide service contracts for small commercial buildings may need amechanism for easily digesting analytic information that is generatedwith reference to the health and status of equipment and occupantcomfort for the buildings they service. The contractors are notnecessarily controls experts or building operators. Within the buildingmanagement services (BMS) industry, alarming and alarm handling may bedeveloped with rigorous workflows that can allow building operators dealwith multiple integrated subsystems such as lighting, fire, andsecurity. The work flows due to the rigor necessitated by operators inindustries like pharmaceutical industries may be burdensome tocontractors who are responsible for the HVAC equipment of manybuildings, because of the amounts of data that can be generated and theinteractions required. Also, because these contractors are small tomedium sized businesses, their operational practices may be quitedifferent from contractor to contractor, so there is necessarily nocommon work flow that can be adopted, and the classic legacy alarmingworkflow may have been rejected by them as inefficient. Therefore, analerting service that is easy and informative may be desired.

The lightweight alerting system may enable delivering of valuable andtimely notifications to operators and/or maintainers of buildings andequipment with only minimum overhead. This appears to be in contrast totraditional BMS alarming services that produce large files flooded withrepeated alarms and return to normal records to sort, acknowledge andtrack.

An alert may be a reporting of an event record. An event may pertain toa threshold of some kind that has been crossed. An alert may either be asensed value going outside a specific bound, or an analytic valueexceeding a specified bound.

An alert may by default be logged when it has occurred, along with thecurrent value of the object to which the alert threshold has beenapplied. Optionally, the alert may be configured to appear on acontractor's alert page display or dashboard on, for example, a pad,notebook, tablet, smartphone, laptop, or an office computer via a wireand/or wireless connection.

Multiple alert priorities may be shown on the alert page to allow forcategorization and actions required. An example may be “high priority”that indicates that immediate action should be taken, “medium priority”that indicates that an action should be taken during a next service callor intervention, and “low priority” that indicates that an issue shouldbe logged with an optional service interaction.

A push notification may be another option that can be triggered by analert. Push notification content may indicate who is to receive themessage and how the message will be delivered. The notification may betailored per event.

An alert may be a record of the event that a threshold has been crossed,and exists regardless of whether the condition goes back below thethreshold. Depending on how a contractor wants to deal with alerts ondifferent object values, the contractor may set different alerts withdifferent thresholds on the same object. For example, the contractor mayset a lower threshold that puts a low level alert into the log file tohelp with tracking possible issues, and they could set a second alert onthe same object using a higher threshold (with a push notification) thatindicates immediate attention is needed.

If an object that generated an alert crosses the threshold back to anun-alerted value, a crossing may be reflected in the current status ofthe object associated with the alert. If the object re-crosses thethreshold (e.g., it is intermittent), then a new instance may betime-stamped and logged. An alert status screen may always just show alast occurrence of the particular alert (until it is dismissed), and itscurrent status (whether over the alert threshold or not). If the alerthas a push notification associated with it, the user may be able tospecify if pushed every time it goes away and comes back, or only afterit has been dismissed.

The “user” should be able to dismiss service alerts from their alertstatus page once the user has dealt with them. To dismiss a servicealert may mean to remove it from the user's active alert page, such thatthe alert is only visible in the log.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of generation and alert reporting as indicated bysymbols 11 and 12, respectively. An initialization of the alert mayoccur at symbol 13. At symbol 14, there may be a wait for an alert Xthreshold. If the threshold is exceeded, then there may be a wait for analert X delay at symbol 15. If the threshold is no longer exceeded, thena return may be made to symbol 14 where a wait for the alert X thresholdmay ensue. It may be noted that it is a one shot event from the state atsymbol 15, which may occur when the delay time is met. In order togenerate another alert X occurrence, the state at symbol 15 needs to beexited by a “threshold no longer exceeded” action back to the “waitingfor alert X threshold” state at symbol 14.

If the alert X delay is met at symbol 15, then notifications may behandled at symbol 16 of the alert reporting in symbol 12. An alert Xoccurrence time from symbol 16 may be logged in the alert log file atsymbol 17. Alert X may be added to specified user pages in not currentlylisted (User Y, Z, . . . ) from symbol 17 to symbol 18 where alert X islisted on alerts user Y page. From alert log file at symbol 17, alert Xmay be added to user pages if not currently listed to symbols 18, 19,20, and so on, that indicate alert X listed on alerts user Y page, alertX listed on user Z page, alert X listed on alerts user . . . page, andso on, respectively. A latest occurrence of alert X (Z, . . . ) todisplay may be found on a user page.

From initialize at symbol 13, a signal may go to a symbol 21 at alertreporting at symbol 12. Symbol 21 may indicate alert X as not listed onalerts user Y page. Also from initialize at symbol 13 may be a signal tosymbol 22, symbol 23, and so on. Symbol 22, symbol 23 and so on, mayindicate an alert X shown on alerts user Z page, alert X shown on alertsuser . . . page, and so on, respectively.

From symbols 18, 19, 20, and so on, representing indicated content,respectively, signals may go to symbols 21, 22, 23, and so on,representing indicated content, respectively. Symbol 24 may indicatethat alert X (Z, . . . ) may be dismissed. (Note going from symbol 21 to16.)

Auto-adjustment of gateway poll rates based on the needs of various dataconsuming applications may be noted. As devices are connected togetherin a developing internet of things (IoT), connected devices may becalled on to supply data to many different types of applications andservices, some of which may even be unknown at the time of deployment.High data exchange rates (communication bandwidth) may imply significanttrade-offs between value and cost. Sending all possible data at thefastest possible rate may mean maintaining very expensive data channels,and substantial effort to extract a subset of important information froma huge stream of data. Conversely, sending limited data at slower ratesmay not necessarily provide enough information, or a fast enoughresponse to meet the needs of a data client's application. Examples ofapplications that might subscribe to a sensor value and have differentneeds may incorporate live monitoring of a value to debug a system,creating a general trend log, running an fault detection and diagnostic(FDD) algorithm, resetting control loop properties, and/or so forth.

What is desired may be providing a role based on a gateway function (aspart of an IoT device interface or as an external gateway device) thatallows for applications registering with the gateway to dynamicallyspecify a subset group of synchronized data objects that theapplications need, and at what rate. Each subscription may have adifferent message and a destination, or a common destination (e.g., acloud) directed to different services within the destination. This mayallow any application to subscribe to updates from a data object to meetits specific needs. Some services may do this for individual objectvalues when combined with change of value (COV) thresholds. Many otherservices trying to meet this need may rely on various formats of pollingfor the data, which can consume much more bandwidth.

The gateway may publish a data model of the information that it hasaccess to, and an available update resolution (if one reads it fasterthan this, the process that generates will not have done so and one willget the same value as the last one read). The gateway may acceptformalized predefined role subscriptions and custom role subscriptions.The predefined system roles may be for the common application types thatneed unique data objects and rates for their services. Example commonroles may incorporate system commissioning status viewing, energyanalysis data logging, equipment FDD analytic engine, and maintenancetrend logging. The subscriptions may be transient such that they willonly be active when needed. An example of why this is useful may be forthe system commissioning status viewing role. Commissioning a system mayrequire much data at high data rates, but only for a subset of specificdevices for a short period of time, and not very often in the lifetimeof a system. During the rare occurrence of commissioning activity, theneeded specific high speed data may be collected and only sent to theproper subscriber; the other subscribers (with different roles but usingsome of the same data), would not necessarily be subjected to the highspeed data stream that is temporarily created for the common objectsneeded by their application roles. Routing and buffering capabilitiesmay then account for the high temporary bandwidth needs without havingto provide an infrastructure for the rare worst case data raterequirement.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of auto-adjustment of gateway poll rates based onneeds of various data consuming applications. A gateway 31 may have adata model table 32 having objects 1 through n. Each object may havetags 1 through N. “n” and “N” are not necessarily the same numbers.Gateway 31 may have a polling profiles table 33. Polling profiles mayhave, for example, poll subscription A, B and C. There may be more orfewer poll subscriptions. Each poll subscription may designate a certainfrequency of occurrences, for instance, A may be one, B may be five, andC may be 100. The poll subscriptions may designate other frequencies.Certain poll subscriptions may be designated for each object with an “X”in a row of a column for the respective object. For example, object 5may have poll subscriptions B and C designated.

At symbol 34, gateway 31 may publish data models with multiple taggingschemes. After symbol 34, as noted by arrow 37, a system operator maypredefine gateway 31 poll profiles 33 by allocating tagged data, asindicated by dashed arrow 36 to different user roles, and may assign anappropriate rate, as indicated by dashed arrow 38, at symbol 35. Asnoted by arrow 39, after symbol 35, the system operator or user atsymbol 41, may select a gateway 31 poll profile from polling profiles33, as indicated by dashed arrow 42, for current user needs. Also aftersymbol 35, as noted by arrow 43, at symbol 44, the system user maycreate a custom gateway poll profile from polling profiles table 33, asindicated by dashed arrow 45, for current user needs and may push togateway 31. From symbols 41 and 44, as noted by arrows 46 and 47,gateway 31 may poll and publish data based on a current profile atsymbol 48.

Detecting a loss of space comfort control in an HVAC system may benoted. It may be valuable for an HVAC maintenance contractor or buildingoperator to be automatically warned when control of a temperature in aspace not necessarily maintained. A common way of reporting an exclusionpast simple temperature alarm limits may have issues that prevent atimely and reliable indication of loss of control. For instance, ifthere are multiple set points used throughout the building operation(either automatically scheduled or user adjusted), then a single limitmay need to be outside the worst case set point, and therefore will notnecessarily provide a timely notification if issues occur during otherset points. Even if the limits are scheduled to match the set pointschedule, this would not necessarily account for manual set pointchanges or even a recovery time needed to go from set points requiringless energy to those that require more, since HVAC equipment may havewidely divergent recovery times dependent on the sizing practices andvariability of heating and cooling loads. This means that a wide bufferfor triggering, or needing to wait for a long period outside the limitsto make sure a legal disturbance had not occurred, may lead todiscomfort before notification, and reduce the value of an alert, sinceit may likely be that occupants would already have registered acomplaint by the time one is sure that the event was not a false alarm.

Instead of watching for a controlled variable to make an excursionoutside of a fixed value, an approach of anticipating when a loss ofcontrol (and comfort) may occur. This may be done by watching theproportional error (which is the instantaneous difference in the setpoint and the controlled variable), while ignoring proportional errorsof reasonable duration due to set point changes. The approach may workfor both heating and cooling and any set point since the mode can beknown (heat or cool), and a proportional error may be directionallyadjusted for general testing. A strategy may involve several criteriafor determining loss of control. A first item may be that theproportional error (the difference between the set point and thecontrolled variable where a positive number represents a needing alarger value of the controlled output, e.g., for heat, space temperaturecontrol=setpoint−space temperature.) may need to be larger than whatwould be expected for steady state control but smaller than what wouldbe noticeably uncomfortable. A second may be that the heating equipmentshould not be recovering from a set point change (as this would be aperiod of time that under normal circumstances when it would be expectedthat the proportional error would be returned to within the definedlimit from of the first item), and may be dynamically calculated bymonitoring the active set point and the mode. A third item may be if theproportional error is outside of the limit from the first item, and thecontrol is not in a state of recovery from the second item, and thederivative (rate of change) of the proportional error is such that itwill not get within the range of the first item in a reasonable time,then the alert may be triggered. Also one may note that is the sensedvalue (in this case the space temperature) has any noise on it, thederivative readings should be filtered to prevent inaccurateconclusions.

The approach may be implemented as logic directly into thermostats, inlocal servers that supervise and monitor the buildings where the zonecontrol equipment operates, or in remote or cloud based systems thathave access to operational data of the building controls.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of detecting a loss of space comfort control in anHVAC system. A start at symbol 51 may lead to a selection or indicationof a heat or cool mode of the HVAC system. A cool mode selection at asymbol 52 may be noted by an arrow 53 to a symbol 54 indicating aproportional error equal to a space temperature minus a set point. Aheat mode selection at symbol 52 may be noted by an arrow 55 to a symbol56 indicating a proportional error equal to a set point minus a spacetemperature. Arrows 57 and 58 may lead from symbols 54 and 56,respectively, to a symbol 59 that asks whether the proportional error isgreater than X. X may be settable for an application, and wouldtypically be a value that is larger than what would be expected fromsteady state control, but smaller than what would be noticeablyuncomfortable (e.g., −1.5 degrees F.).

If an answer to the question at symbol 59 is no, then a return to symbol52 may be made as indicated by an arrow 61. If an answer to the questionat symbol 59 is yes, then an arrow 62 may go to a symbol 63 where afilter may be used to remove noise from the proportional error signal.As indicated by arrow 64 from symbol 63, a rate of change of theproportional error may be calculated at symbol 65. From symbol 65, asnoted by arrow 66 to symbol 67, a question of whether a currentproportional error rate of change is less than Y1 may be asked. Y1 maybe settable for the application, and may typically be a value that wouldrepresent whether the rate of change means that the proportional errorwill become less than X in a reasonable amount of time.

If an answer to the question at symbol 67 is no, then a return to symbol52 may be made as shown by arrow 68. If answer to the question is yes,then an arrow 69 may lead to a symbol 71. As indicated by symbol 71, aset point and mode change history may be checked to make a determinationrelative to a recovery period by calculating the amount of set pointchange and multiplying it by a recovery rate. Recovery rates may differfor different types of heating and cooling equipment.

From symbol 71 along an arrow 72 to a symbol 73, a question of whetherthere is a recovery from a mode or set point change may be asked. If ananswer is yes, then an arrow 74 may go to symbol 49 where a question ofwhether a current proportional error rate of change is less than Y2. Y2may be settable for the application, and would typically be a value thatwould represent whether the rate of change means the proportional errorwill become less than X in a reasonable amount of time. If an answer isyes, then a return to symbol 52 may be made as shown by arrow 50. If theanswer at symbol 49 is no, then an arrow 60 may go to symbol 76. If theanswer at symbol 73 is no, then an arrow 75 may go to symbol 76 where aquestion whether the condition has existed continuously for Z minutesmay be asked. Z may be adjustable based on application dynamics. If ananswer to the question is no, then, according to an arrow 77, a returnto symbol 52 may be made. If an answer is yes, then a loss of spacecomfort control alert may be set at symbol 79 as led to by arrow 78.

HVAC capacity loss alerting may use relative degree days and accumulatedstage runtime with operational equivalency checks may be noted. It maybe valuable for HVAC maintenance contractors to be automatically warnedwhen equipment loses some of its capacity. Some fault detection anddiagnostic (FDD) approaches may have been developed to provide suchinformation; however, reliable approaches may need specific(non-standard) sensors or detailed equipment specs and/or installationdetails that are expensive to install or obtain, and do not necessarilyexist in many cases. The approaches, while being expensive to implement,may also be limited to only a single specific model of a singlemanufacturer, among thousands of models and many manufacturers, andtherefore might be difficult to deploy efficiently.

A solution may incorporate a reliable capacity loss calculation thatutilizes information readily available, such as the total runtimeassociated with a particular load profile. Degree days may have beenused for general energy use comparisons, but that calculation is notnecessarily accurate enough (i.e., does not account for dependentvariables that also affect a load) for reliably determining changes incapacity. A more reliable and accurate load calculation (which can becalled relative degree days (RDDs)) may take into account key runtimedependent variables such as latent building mass energy storage, andcapacity differences based on controlling to different thermostat setpoints. To account for thermal load differences associated withcontrolling to different set points at the same outdoor temperature, arelative degree day calculation may integrate a difference in theoutdoor air temperature from a current set point. To account for energystorage and internal load variations, one may need only to makecomparisons of the ratio of relative degree days to an adjustedequipment runtime when the effective occupied profiles, for a timeinterval such as an entire week, match.

In the approach, relative degree days may be integrated across a timeframe, such as a week, that can provide a similar load profile based onoccupancy patterns (profiles), and indexed to those occupancy profiles.When similar occupancy profiles are encountered (many buildings maygenerally have only a few regular weekly occupancy profiles that occurfrequently), then the ratio of RDDs to accumulated stage runtimes mayrepresent a relative amount of effort that the equipment is using toregulate a normalized load, and thus may be used as an effective measureof differences in capacity. Even though the approach may be slow undernormal circumstances, the issues that lead to loss of capacity may occurgradually over months of time.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a system for HVAC capacity loss alertingusing relative degree days and accumulated run time with operationalequivalency checks. At a symbol 81, an effective capacity ratio may becalculated for a last specified time interval. The effective capacityratio may be relative degree days for the last specified time intervaland divided by accumulated stage run time for the same interval.

An arrow 82 may lead to a symbol 83 that may ask a question of whether aclear reference flag is set because service and repair were performed.If an answer is yes, then an arrow 84 may lead from symbol 83 to asymbol 85 where a set point schedule reference log may be cleared. Fromsymbol 85, an arrow 86 may lead to a symbol 87 where a new set pointschedule reference may be logged.

If an answer to the question in symbol 83 is no, then via an arrow 88 toa symbol 89, a question of whether a last specified time interval setpoint schedule matches one of the references may be asked. If an answerto the question is no, then as noted be arrow 91 a new set pointschedule reference may be logged at symbol 87. If an answer to thequestion is yes, then an arrow 92 may lead to a symbol 93 where theratio is compared to a reference. From symbol 93 along arrow 94 to asymbol 95, a question may be whether the current ratio is less than X %of a reference ratio. If so, than then an arrow 96 may lead to symbol 97where a loss of capacity alert is set.

HVAC alerting for loss of heat or cool capacity may use delta T anddependent system properties. An approach may be provided to determine ifthe capacity of an HVAC unit has degraded using readily availableoperational data. In order to determine if the heating or coolingcapacity of an HVAC unit has changed, one may compare the “dT” definedas a change in dry bulb temperature of the air as it passes through theheat exchanger where dT=|Tair (before heat exchanger)−T_(air) (afterheat exchanger)|. There may be separate values tracked for heating andcooling. However, for this to be accurate, it may need to be done insuch a way that the normal operational properties of the system thatvary the dT are controlled (since any variation of the followingconditions may result in a change in capacity that is not due to systemdegradation such as a number of stages active, air flow, outdoor drybulb temp, mixed air wet bulb temp, mixed air dry bulb temp). This maybe done using two approaches: 1) by only measuring the dT when it hasreached steady state; and 2) recording the associated system conditionsso that future comparisons can be done against the same systemconditions.

First, in order to provide a reliable approach to determine that dT hasreached a steady state value, since stages are continually cycling andthe time constants vary widely from, for instance, RTU to RTU, and evenwithin a single RTU, the time constant can vary with flow, coilcleanliness, humidity, type (e.g., for heat—compressor vs. electric auxvs. gas aux), one may monitor the data to ensure that no state changeshave recently occurred, and that the derivative of the discharge airtemp is less than a threshold that will ensure the value is within ½percent of its final value.

Second, in order to ensure that the dT comparisons are relevant, theyshould be done against equivalent system conditions, since any variationof the following conditions may result in a change in capacity that isnot due to system degradation, such as air flow (proxy for this may befilter dp and econo pos), outdoor dry bulb, mixed air wet bulb temp,mixed air dry bulb temp. Therefore, these values may be recorded, sothat over time, the steady state dT can be compared with pastmeasurements under the same conditions.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of HVAC alerting for loss of heat or cool capacityusing DeltaT and dependent system properties. At symbol 101, an RTU(rooftop unit) state (i.e., heat/cool/fan commands) may be monitored. Anarrow 102 from symbol 101 may indicate no state change to a symbol 103,where the RTU state may be monitored and a derivative of a discharge airtemperature may be calculated. A state change may be indicated to symbol101 via an arrow 104. As indicated by an arrow 105 from symbol 103, aDeltaT may be calculated at symbol 106. DeltaT and corresponding valuesmay be stored in a database 108 as indicated by an arrow 107 from symbol106. Values may incorporate cubic feet per minute (CFM), mixed airtemperature (MAT), mixed air wet bulb temperature (MAWB), outdoortemperature (ODT), and delta temperature (DeltaT). Multiple levels ofthese values may be stored in accordance with time and/or events. Anarrow 109 may lead from symbol 106 to a symbol 110 where DeltaT storeswith equivalent values of CFM, MAT, MAWB and ODT are found and comparedto a current DT. At symbol 110, a question asked is whether DeltaT isless than an N percent of a reference DeltaT. If an answer to thequestion is yes, then an arrow 111 leads to a symbol 112 where a loss ofcapacity alert is set.

The following may apply to equipment of various kinds. The HVACequipment may be regarded herein as an illustrative example. Triggeringa subset of analytics by automatically inferring HVAC equipment detailsfrom controller configuration details may be noted. Detecting HVACequipment faults without causing false-positives may often require acomplex configuration. For example: 1) A combination of rules andconditions to be checked may be so complex that an unskilled HVACtechnician may not have the time or the ability to setup theconfiguration; 2) The rules may include a need to analyze theoperational data from the equipment over a span of time—setting upalgorithms that examine data streams or historical data may requireskill and experience; and 3) An applicability of a particular automatedfault detection (AFD) algorithm for a given instance may also have to bedetermined based on various factors requiring expert level knowledgeabout the equipment combined with how the controls that run theequipment are configured.

Depending on the type and complexity of the equipment type, the targetusers having installer, maintenance and service technician user profilesmay not necessarily have an ability to setup and configure such acomplex system. Even if technicians are skilled, they may often belimited by the amount of time they are able to spend to configure such asystem to get it to work reliably (no false alerts).

When the controllers/thermostats are installed, they may be configuredand provided details about how to control the HVAC equipment. For afixed-function controller, the configuration data may includedescriptions of the types of HVAC equipment and HVAC equipmentsubsystems, for example, a type of cooling, a number of compressors,whether an economizer is present, and so on. The information availablein the controllers may be automatically used to check the filter/triggercondition for a specific fault detection algorithm. In other words, theinformation that is used by the controllers to control the HVACequipment may be used to determine which set of fault detectionalgorithms are relevant for that specific equipment. The generalprinciple may be applied to other types of equipment, not just HVAC,that are controlled by an intelligent control device based on a set ofconfiguration parameters. The parameters that are used for control mayalso be used to filter applicable fault detection algorithms.

A light commercial building system (LCBS) cloud system may be capable ofhosting and running several different types of fault detectionalgorithms. The LCBS system may be targeted for HVAC equipment initiallybut can be expanded to other types of equipment. The algorithms may bepredefined and the “trigger” conditions/rules may also be pre-defined.The trigger conditions may be defined in terms of specific “equipmentconfiguration” point values. When the LCBS gateway detects thethermostats/controllers installed in a building, it may automaticallyread the configuration details from these controllers and send theinformation to the cloud. The cloud system may examine the controllerconfiguration details to infer items about the HVAC equipment and thencheck the trigger conditions for each of the AFDs to determine whetherthe AFD is applicable to this instance of the controller/equipment. Ifthe conditions are met, the cloud system may automatically start aninstance of an algorithm for this controller. The algorithm may then acton the runtime/operational data from that particular controllerinstance. The present mechanism may significantly reduce the timerequired as well as the skill/experience level required to setup thesystem to detect HVAC and other equipment faults.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of triggering analytics by inferring HVAC equipmentdetails from a controller configuration. The sources may incorporate aninstaller 101, a cloud gateway device/supervisory device 102, analyticsinfrastructure 103 (cloud/server hosted), and HVAC and controls expert104. A thermostat/controller 106 may be installed. A controller 106 maybe configured for specific HVAC equipment control at symbol 107.

Relative to device 102, virtually all controllers may be discovered atsymbol 108. Configuration data at symbol 109 may be read from thecontrollers. The configuration as indicated by the data may be sent toan analytics infrastructure at symbol 110. The analytics infrastructuremay often be hosted on a server or in the cloud. Operational data atsymbol 111 may be sent to the analytics infrastructure.

Relative to the analytics infrastructure hosted by the cloud or serverat symbol 103, the configuration may be compared against standard HVACequipment templates at symbol 112. Then a specific subset of HVACequipment may be identified at symbol 113. The specific subset of HVACequipment analytics algorithms may be looked up at symbol 114. Thefollowing symbol 115 indicates that an instance of analytics algorithmsmay be started and that respective operational data may be fed.

At symbol 104, a domain expert of HVAC and controls may be involved todefine the source of information that is used by the core analyticsinfrastructure like HVAC equipment templates may be defined at symbol116. Then configuration parameters may be mapped to HVAC templateattributes at symbol 117. At symbol 118, HVAC equipment specificanalytic algorithms may be defined.

Ensuring reliability of analytics by retaining logical continuity ofHVAC equipment operational data even when controllers and other parts ofthe system are replaced may be noted. Operational data from equipmentlike, for example, HVAC equipment, that are collected and stored fromthermostats and controllers over a long period of time may be used todetect/predict equipment faults that manifest over a long period oftime. However, such analytics of long term historical data may rely onthe continuity and correctness of the data. When controllers fail andget replaced, the operational data from the new controller may getlogged as a completely different data set unrelated to the data from theprevious controller. However, since the data are about the operation ofthe same piece of HVAC equipment, this discontinuity in data logging mayaffect analytics that depend on historical data.

When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in abuilding, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows thatallow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting andlogging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement andtherefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers reallybelong to the same HVAC equipment. This approach may allow the system toautomatically reconcile and merge the data set from the old controllerand the new controller into one consistent series.

An LCBS cloud user interface (UI) may provide a “Replace” menu optionfor a gateway/controller. When the menu option is invoked for acontroller, the user may be allowed to select/point to items in thecontroller list that refer to the old controller and the new controller.Once this is done, the cloud system may automatically remap internalpoint identification (ID) references and also automatically copyhistorical data from the old controller to the new controller to ensurecontinuity in the time-series data for the given HVAC equipment.

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are diagrams about retaining logical continuity ofequipment operational data even when controllers are replaced. FIG. 7relates to a scenario one and FIG. 8 relates to a scenario two. Scenarioone reveals an initial installation of a controller. A controller ID andoperational data may be automatically mapped to, for example, instancesof HVAC equipment in the database used by an analytics infrastructure.

Sources may incorporate an installer 121, a cloud gatewaydevice/supervisory device 122, and an analytics infrastructure 123(cloud/server hosted). A thermostat/controller may be installed atsymbol 125. The controller may be configured for specific HVAC equipmentcontrol at symbol 126.

At symbol 127 of source 122, all controllers may be discovered.Configuration data may be read from the controllers at symbol 128. Aconfiguration may be sent to an analytics infrastructure at symbol 129.From a controller, operational data may be sent to the analyticsinfrastructure as indicated in symbol 130.

From source 123, the configuration may be compared against standard HVACequipment templates at symbol 131. At symbol 132, a specific subset ofHVAC equipment may be identified. A list of HVAC equipment mapped torespective controller IDs may be created and stored at symbol 133.Operational data received from a controller under the HVAC equipment maybe mapped and stored according to symbol 134. At symbol 135, operationaldata may be fed to respective analytics algorithms.

Scenario two of FIG. 8 relates to replacement of a controller used forgiven HVAC equipment. A new controller ID and operational data from thecontroller may be automatically mapped to an existing instance of HVACequipment in the database and operational data from the old controlleris merged with operational data received from a new controller. Sourcesmay incorporate installers 141 and 143, a cloud gatewaydevice/supervisory device 142, and an analytics infrastructure 144(cloud/server hosted). At symbol 146, a thermostat/controller may bephysically replaced with a new controller. The controller may beconfigured for a specific HVAC equipment control according to symbol147.

Relative to source 142, all controllers may be discovered at symbol 148.According to symbol 149, configuration data may be read from thecontrollers. A configuration may be sent to an analytics infrastructureat symbol 150. Operational data from the controller may be sent to theanalytics infrastructure at symbol 151. As to installer 143, the oldcontroller and its replacement may be identified from the UI(web/cloud/supervisory UI and so on) according to symbol 152.Operational data from both controllers may be confirmed to represent thesame HVAC equipment, in view of symbol 153. As an alternate to manualidentification and mapping of multiple controller data to the same pieceof equipment, other approaches may be incorporated to accomplish thisautomatically. The controllers may be named in a unique manner orassigned addresses in a specific manner that will allow the system toautomatically associate data from these controllers to a specificinstance of HVAC equipment in the database.

At source 144 level, duplicate instances of HVAC equipment in thedatabase may be deleted according to symbol 154. Symbol 155 indicatesthe operational data from both controllers may be copied and mapped to asingle instance of HVAC equipment. Analytics may be notified to pick anew data set for the given HVAC equipment according to symbol 156.

Workflow and mechanisms of, for example, an LCSB gateway, may beassociated to a contractor account. The process and mechanisms involvedin associating an LCBS gateway that is installed in a building to thecloud-account of a user (in this case a contractor) may be noted.

Several issues may be checked. First installing and configuring devicesthat connect to the internet may involve multiple steps that need someamount of information technology (IT) knowledge and access to IT setupdetails in the facility. In a target market for LCBS, the user expectedto install the gateway may not necessarily have the knowledge, or accessto such information. This lack may sometimes act as a deterrent and theninstallers may tend to rely on somewhat more expensive high-skilledpersonnel to install such systems that connect to the internet/cloud.

Second, complexity may affect security and ownership of a device. Theinstaller may be doing the job on behalf of the building owner. Theinstaller may need to be able to finish his task with minimum dependencyon building owner. This approach may demand that the installer be incontrol of the workflow. At the same time, the building owner may wantto have the ability to switch contractors and be able to transfercontrol and flow of data from the gateway to a new contractor. The“transfer of gateway” to a new account should happen in a secure mannersuch that the previous contractor will no longer be able to access thebuilding/gateway from his cloud account once the transfer is completed.

Several features/mechanisms may come together to address theabove-mentioned issues.

An initial install approach may be noted. A gateway may be shipped withdynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) addressing enabled bydefault. Therefore, when the gateway is powered up and connected to anEthernet port, the gateway may automatically acquire an internetprotocol (IP) address. The installer is not necessarily dependent on anyIT knowledge to setup the device. The installer might only need to askfor a free Ethernet port to get the device to talk to a company cloud.

After successfully obtaining an IP address, the gateway mayautomatically connect to the company cloud to identify itself withoutuser intervention. The gateway may be shipped with, for example, aglobally unique multiple character code, or other unique designation forregistration. The installer may type in, for example, a registrationcode under the installer's cloud account to associate the gateway to theinstaller's account.

Transferring the gateway to a different contractor's account may benoted. When the new contractor attempts to add a gateway to his cloudaccount, after entering the registration ID, the contractor may bechallenged to prove ownership/physical access to the building. Tosupport this, the gateway may be shipped with a push button that isexpected to be pushed as part of the workflow to transfer the gateway toa different account. The push-button press may be valid/honored onlywhen it is done as part of this workflow. The push button press may beignored by the system in all other situations. This may be to ensurethat no one other than a contractor/building owner, who has physicalaccess to the gateway, can transfer the gateway to a different accountsuch as a cloud account.

FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 are diagrams that relate to registering a gatewaywith a building account. FIG. 9 pertains to a scenario one involvingfirst-time registration of a gateway to a building account. Sources mayincorporate an installer 161, a LCBS gateway 162, an installer 163, andan LCBS cloud application 164. At an installer 161 level, a gateway maybe installed and connected to an internet in view of symbol 166. Thegateway may be powered-up at symbol 167. LCBS components may be regardedfor a purpose of illustrative examples.

A source level having an LCBS gateway 162, an IP address may be acquiredthrough DHCP, at symbol 168. Authentication may be achieved with a cloudapplication with a secret ID according to symbol 169. At symbol 170,continuously (e.g., every 30 seconds), a registration ID may be sent toa cloud until mapped to a building account.

An installer 163 of the source, may create a building account from anLCBS web-UI (user interface), in view of symbol 171. A gatewayregistration ID may be added under the building account, at symbol 172.A LCBS cloud application 164, at a source level, may indicate at symbol173 to verify whether a registration ID entered by a user is valid. Thena database may be updated to map the gateway to a given buildingaccount, at symbol 174. In view of symbol 175, upon a subsequent requestfrom the gateway, credentials relevant to the building account may beprovided to the gateway.

FIG. 10 pertains to a scenario two involving moving a gateway from onebuilding account to another account. Sources may incorporate aninstaller 181, an LCBS cloud application 182, an installer 183, an LCBSgateway 184, and an LCBS cloud application 185. In view of symbol 186, anew building account may be created from the LCBS web-UI. A gatewayregistration ID may be added under the building account, at symbol 187.

Going to a source level, with an LCBS cloud application 182, whether theregistration ID entered by a user and is already mapped to a differentbuilding may be verified in view of symbol 188. At symbol 189, the usermay be prompted to push a button on the gateway to prove ownership. Onemay wait, for example, five minutes, to receive a push button commandfrom the gateway, according to symbol 190. Installer 183 of the sourcelevel may push the re-register button on the gateway, at symbol 191. Thebutton press may be verified using LEDs on the gateway in light ofsymbol 192.

Relative to the LCBS gateway 184 of the source level, authenticationwith a cloud application may be achieved with a secret ID, according tosymbol 193. At symbol 194, a push button message may be sent to a cloudalong with a registration ID.

An LCBS cloud application 185 of the source level, whether aregistration ID received in a push button message matches theregistration ID entered by a user may be verified in view of symbol 195.A mapping of the gateway from the old building and a re-map to a newbuilding in the database, may be achieved according to symbol 196. Theuser may be notified about a successful mapping of the gateway to thebuilding account according to symbol 197.

To recap, a notification system may incorporate a sensor that detectsone or more events of equipment, and a report mechanism that provides analert of the one or more events. The event may indicate a crossing of athreshold. The crossing of the threshold may be a value exceeding apre-determined bound. The event may be logged upon an occurrence alongwith the value of an object to which the threshold is applied. If thevalue of the object recedes from the threshold, the alert may remain. Ifthe value of the object again exceeds the threshold, the alert mayremain and a latest time that the value of the object has exceeded thethreshold may be logged.

The alert may have a priority selected from a group incorporating aplurality of priorities. Each priority may indicate a level of urgencyfor an action relative to the object that should be taken.

The alert may be configured to appear on a page of a display ordashboard selected from a group incorporating a pad, notebook, tablet,smartphone, laptop, and office computer.

The alert may trigger a push notification. Content of the pushnotification may indicate a recipient of the alert and a mode ofdelivery to the recipient.

The alert may incorporate a record of the event that the threshold hasbeen crossed. The record of the event may remain if the crossing of thethreshold has become absent.

One or more additional alerts may be set for one or more additionalthresholds, respectively, relative to one object based on values of theobject.

Each of the various thresholds may incorporate a predetermined value atwhich an object crosses a threshold to indicate an alert having a uniquepriority, in view of priorities of other alerts set for differentthresholds.

Whether an alert triggers a push notification may be an option that isselected according to a value of a threshold that is crossed.

If a value of an object that crossed a threshold to generate an alert,crosses back across the threshold to a value insufficient to generate analert, and re-crosses the threshold, then another event may betime-stamped and logged, but only one alert will remain for thatthreshold.

A user may ordinarily see just the one alert on a display but can lookat a log of one or more events reflecting crossings of the threshold bythe value of the object.

The event may be a result of a complex calculation of parameters of theequipment.

An approach of alerting may incorporate reporting an event record ofequipment as an alert, logging in the alert when the alert occurs,classifying the alert as having a level of priority selected from agroup of priorities, and configuring the alert to appear on a display ordashboard.

An event record as an alert may be selected from a group incorporating asensed value of an object, going outside a predetermined bound, and ananalytic value exceeding a predetermined bound. The alert may pertain toa status of the equipment in a building management system, as determinedby a value of an object to which an alert threshold has been appliedaccording to the predetermined bound.

Each of the group of priorities may incorporate a different requirementfor a responsive action relative to a cause of the alert.

An alert may trigger a push notification. The push notification mayincorporate content about the alert of who is to receive informationpertaining to the alert, and a medium for conveying the alert.

Two or more alerts with different thresholds may be set on the sameobject. The two or more alerts may be set at different thresholdsaccording to predetermined bounds, respectively.

A first threshold for a first alert of the two or more alerts may be setfor a first value of the object. A second threshold for a second alertof two or more alerts may be set for a second value of the object. Thefirst alert may be classified as low priority. The second alert may beclassified as high priority. The first and second alerts may beprogressive with the first alert being an early warning of the secondalert.

A simple alerting service mechanism may incorporate an indicationdevice, a processor connected to the indication device, and a sensorarrangement connected to the processor. The sensor arrangement mayobtain one or more parameter values of an object of building equipment.A predetermined threshold may be applied to the one or more parametervalues. If a value of the one or more parameter values crosses thethreshold, then an event record of the value that crosses the thresholdmay be sent by the sensor arrangement to the processor. The processormay provide an alert of the event record to the indication device. Thealert may be classified with a priority level that indicates an urgencylevel of attention required for the object.

The indication device or processor may be selected from a groupincorporating a pad, notebook, tablet, smartphone, laptop and officecomputer.

A push notification may be triggered by the alert. The push notificationmay provide information that is tailored to the event record.

If the value of the one or more parameter values crosses the thresholdback to an un-alert position relative to the threshold, then an un-alertof the object may be provided to the processor. If the value of the oneor more parameter values re-crosses the threshold, then another eventrecord of the value may be sent to the processor. The processor mayprovide the same alert for another event record to the indication devicebut may update a time stamp of a most recent event record. Virtually allevents may be recorded in a log that is optionally viewable.

The mechanism may further incorporate a cloud. The cloud may incorporatethe processor.

To recap, a system having adjustable gateway poll rates, may incorporatea mechanism that provides a role-based gateway function or an externalgateway device that allows for applications registering with the gatewayto dynamically specify a subset group of synchronized data objectsneeded by the applications and specify a data rate. A subscription ofeach application may have a message and a destination. The gateway mayaccept formalized predefined role subscriptions and custom rolesubscriptions.

The destination may be a common destination.

The destination may be a cloud.

The common destination may be directed to a plurality of devices withinthe common destination.

The subscription of each application may obtain updates from a dataobject to meet specific needs.

The mechanism may publish a data model of information that the mechanismcan access, and publish an available update resolution.

The formalized predefined role subscriptions may be for common types ofapplications that need unique data objects and rates for their services.The custom role subscriptions applications may be for applications of anuncommon type.

A formalized predefined role for the predefined role subscriptions maybe selected from a group incorporating system commissioning statusviewing, energy analyses data logging, an equipment fault detection anddiagnostic (FDD) analytic engine, and maintenance trend logging, amongother roles.

A subscription that is transparent may be active just when thesubscription is needed.

An approach of adjusting gateway poll rates may incorporate registeringone or more applications with a gateway that dynamically specify asubset group of synchronized data objects that the applications need,and that dynamically specify the rate of the subset group of thesynchronized data objects, and allowing one or more applications tosubscribe to a message, a destination, and updates from a data object tomeet specific needs of the one or more applications.

The gateway may accept formalized predefined role subscriptions andcustom role applications.

Predefined role subscriptions may be for common application types thatneed unique data objects and rates for their services.

Transient subscriptions may be active just when needed.

A transient subscription may be applicable to commissioning a systemthat requires much data at high data rates for just a subset of specificdevices for a short period of time, and infrequently in a lifetime ofthe system.

A subscription of a different role may use some of the same data as thesystem that requires much data at high data rates but is temporarilycreated for a low data rate.

A subscription of a different role may use some of the same data as thesystem that temporarily requires much data at high data rates but iscreated for a low data rate.

An adjustable gateway may incorporate a device that permits registrationof an application to dynamically specify a subset group of synchronizeddata objects and a rate. The device may accept formalized predefinedrole subscriptions and custom role subscriptions. The predefined rolesubscriptions may be for applications of a first type. The custom rolesubscriptions may be for applications of a second type.

Applications of the first type may be applications of a common type.Applications of the second type may be applications of an uncommon type.

Each subscription may have a message and a destination.

The destination may be different from other destinations or may be acommon destination. If the destination is a common destination, then thesubscription may be directed to different services within thedestination.

The common destination may be a cloud. A subscription may be transientin that the subscription is active just when needed.

To recap, a space comfort control detector for a heating or coolingsystem, may incorporate a heating or cooling system for a space, a setpoint device connected to the heating or cooling system that allowschanging a set point, a temperature indicator situated in the space, anda controller connected to the heating or cooling system, the set pointdevice, and the temperature indicator. A controlled variable may be aspace temperature indicated by the temperature indicator. A temperatureset point may be unchanged if the proportional error has attained avalue less than X since a last set point change. A difference between aset point and the controlled variable may be a proportional error asdetermined by the controller. A derivative of the proportional error maybe indicated by the controller. If the proportional error is equal to orless than X, then space comfort control of the space may besatisfactory. If the proportional error is greater than X, and thederivative is greater than Y1, then space comfort control of the spacemay be unsatisfactory and an alert may be provided by the controller.

If the set point has been changed and the proportional error iscalculated based on an active set point derived from a recovery rate R(degrees per hour) by ramping at recovery rate R from a previous setpoint to a present set point, and if the proportional error is greaterthan X but the derivative is less than Y2 for a time equal to or greaterthan Z, then comfort control of the space may have been retained or notnecessarily have been lost.

If the proportional error is greater than X, and the derivative isgreater than Y continuously for a time Z, then the space may becomenoticeably uncomfortable to an occupant of the space.

The heating or cooling system may be rated to operate at a normalcapacity. The set point may be represented by an active set point beingcalculated from a ramp rate S from a previous set point and a new setpoint because of a set point change. If the proportional error isgreater than X for the time associated with the active set point to rampat ramp rate S from the previous set point to a present set point, thenthe heating or cooling system may be operating at less than normalcapacity.

If a rate of change of the proportional error increases beyond Y1 whilethe proportional error increases to greater than X, then an alert may beprovided by the controller.

A derivative of proportional error may be a rate of change of thedifference between the set point and the controlled variable. A filtermay be used to reduce noise of the derivative of the proportional errorand improve an accuracy of determinations dependent on the derivative.

X, Y, Y1, Y2 and Z may be numerical values.

An approach for detecting a loss of space comfort control, mayincorporate observing a proportional error, which is a differencebetween a set point and a controlled variable, of a heating or coolingsystem, that represents an amount of comfort control output, andchecking the proportional error as to whether the proportional error islarger than a number D predetermined for the heating or cooling systemat a steady state, but smaller than a number E predetermined to benoticeably uncomfortable for the heating or cooling system at the steadystate.

D and E may be numerical values.

At a time of the observing and the checking the proportional error,there may be an absence of a recovery state from a set point change.

At the time of the observing and checking the proportional error, if theproportional error is a number greater of a number predetermined aswithin comfort control but smaller than a number E predetermined to bebeyond comfort control, and a rate of change of the proportional errorbeing larger than the number D predetermined during a steady state ofthe heating or cooling system needed to maintain control, then an alertindicating a loss of space comfort control may be triggered.

Noise on the proportional error may be filtered out.

The heating or cooling system may incorporate a heating, ventilation andair conditioning (HVAC) system.

A mechanism for monitoring comfort control in a space, may incorporate aheating or cooling system having one or more heating or cooling vents,respectively, connected to a space, and a thermostat connected to theheating or cooling system. The thermostat may incorporate a processorconnected to the heating or cooling system, an indicator of spacetemperature connected to the processor, and a device for set pointtemperature connected to the processor. Proportional error may be adifference between a set point temperature and space temperature. Theprocessor may calculate an active set point that follows a ramp from aprevious set point to a new set point when a set point has been changed.The processor may periodically sample the proportional error by readingthe space temperature and the set point temperature and calculate aderivative of the proportional error. A derivative of proportional errormay be observed to at least partially monitor comfort control in thespace.

A loss of comfort control may be determined by a proportional error thatis greater than a predetermined number A for steady state control butless than a predetermined number B for noticeable discomfort.

A and B may be numerical values.

The heating or cooling system may not necessarily be in a recovery statefrom a set point change.

If the proportional error is outside of limits where the proportionalerror is less than a predetermined number X for control at steady statebut greater than a predetermined number Y for an expectation ofnoticeable discomfort, the heating or cooling system is not recoveringfrom a set point change, and the rate of change of the proportionalerror will not result in the proportional error to be within the limitshere, then an alert may indicate a loss of comfort control in the space.

X and Y may be numerical values.

If the signal representing the proportional error has noise, then thesignal may be filtered to improve an accuracy of the proportional error.

The heating or cooling system may incorporate a heating ventilation andair conditioning (HVAC) system.

If the signal representing a derivative of the proportional error hasnoise, then the signal may be filtered to improve an accuracy of theproportional error as implemented as logic in the processor.

If the signal representing a derivative of the proportional error hasnoise, then the signal may be filtered to improve an accuracy of thederivative. Filtering of the derivative may be implemented as logic in acloud.

If the signal representing the proportional error has noise, then thesignal may be filtered to improve accuracy of the proportional error.The filter may be implemented in a local server or controller thatcontrols the heating or cooling system for the space.

To recap, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systemcapacity determining mechanism may incorporate an outdoor thermometer,an occupancy profile indicator of a space where an HVAC system providesheating, ventilation and air conditioning, a relative degree daysindicator for a location of the space, a set point indicator of athermostat connected to the HVAC system, a runtime instrument formeasuring accumulated runtime of the HVAC system, a HVAC system capacitycalculator connected to the set point indicator, the outdoorthermometer, the runtime instrument, the occupancy profile indicator,and the relative degree days indicator to determine an effectivecapacity ratio, and an alert indicator connected to the capacitycalculator.

The HVAC capacity calculator may output a number of relative degree daysfor the space.

HVAC capacity may be indicated by the number of relative degree daysdivided by the accumulated runtime.

The alert indicator may provide a warning when there is a change in HVACcapacity.

A previous effective capacity ratio may be relative degree days for aspecified time interval, divided by an accumulated stage run for thespecified time interval, that can be a reference for a subsequenteffective capacity ratio having the same degree days for a time intervalthat is virtually equal to the specified time interval.

The previous effective capacity ratio and the subsequent effectivecapacity ratio may have equivalent occupancy profiles and equivalentsetpoint profiles.

An approach for setting a capacity loss alert, may incorporatecalculating an effective capacity ratio, determining that a clearreference flag is set, determining whether the last specified intervalset point schedule profile matches a set point profile of a reference,comparing the effective capacity ratio to a reference ratio to determinewhether the ratio is less than X percent of the reference ratio, settinga loss of capacity alert if the ratio is equal to or greater than Xpercent of the reference ratio, and X is a predetermined number.

The effective capacity ratio may be relative degree days for a lastspecified time interval divided by an accumulated stage run time for thesame specified time interval.

If the clear reference flag is set because of a service or repairperformed, then a set point schedule reference log may be cleared.

The approach may further incorporate logging a new set point schedulereference if a last specified time interval set point matches areference.

The effective capacity ratio may be compared to a reference ratio.

A question may be whether the effective capacity ratio is less than Xpercent of the reference ratio. X may be a pre-determined number betweenzero and one hundred.

When the effective capacity ratio is less than X percent of thereference ratio, then an alert of loss of capacity may be provided via avisual or audio signal to a user or operator.

A HVAC capacity loss alert system may incorporate a recorder of relativedegree time units, and a recorder of adjusted equipment run time. Arelative degree time unit may be a result of a calculation thatintegrates a difference in outdoor air temperature from current setpoints for a time unit. An effective capacity ratio of relative degreetime units for a duration to the adjusted equipment run time may bemade, when effective occupied profiles match.

A time unit may be a day.

Relative degree days may be integrated across a time frame that providesa similar load profile based on occupancy patterns and indexed to theoccupancy profiles.

The difference in outdoor air temperature from a current set point maybe integrated periodically every X seconds.

X may be a number.

When similar occupancy and set point profiles are detected, then theeffective capacity ratio of relative degree days to the adjustedequipment run time may be determined.

The effective capacity ratio may represent an amount of effort thatequipment uses to regulate a normalized load. A profile may contain setpoint schedules for occupancy and non-occupancy.

A reference ratio may be established to represent an amount of effortthat the equipment is expected to use to regulate a normalized load. Theeffective capacity ratio may be compared with the reference ratio. Ifthe effective capacity ratio is at least X percent less than thereference ratio, then a loss of capacity alert may be set.

The reference ratio may be established from a previous effectivecapacity ratio. The effective capacity ratio may be compared with thereference ratio. If the effective capacity ratio is at least Y percentless than the reference ratio, then a loss of capacity alert may be set.

X and Y may be numbers.

To recap, a heat exchanger capacity change detection system mayincorporate a first temperature detector situated at an air intake of aheat exchanger, a second temperature detector situated at an airdischarge of the heat exchanger, and a processor connected to the firstand second temperature detectors. The first temperature detector mayprovide an intake air temperature signal to the processor. The secondtemperature detector may provide a discharge air temperature signal tothe processor. The processor may provide a delta temperature indicationthat is a difference between an intake air temperature and a dischargeair temperature of the heat exchanger. The processor may provide aderivative of the delta temperature indication. The derivative of thedelta temperature indication may indicate a steady state condition hasbeen reached from system changes that affect a delta temperature. Whenthe trend change occurs, a change in the delta temperature may representa change of heating or cooling capacity of the heat exchanger providedthat the operational properties of the heat exchanger remain constant.

An intake air temperature and a discharge air temperature may be drybulb temperatures of air.

An operational property is one that may vary to change a capacity of theheat exchanger that does degrade a capacity of the heat exchanger.

The operational properties may be at least one or more items selectedfrom a group incorporating a number of active stages, air flow rate,outdoor dry bulb temperature, mixed air wet bulb temperature, and mixedair dry bulb temperature.

The system may further incorporate a change of capacity alert deviceconnected to the processor.

If the measured delta temperature is at least N percent different froman expected delta temperature, then the alert device may indicate thatthe heat exchanger has a change of capacity. N may be a predeterminednumber.

An approach for determining a change of capacity of a heating or coolingsystem, may incorporate determining a commanded capacity of the heatingor cooling system that remains the same, measuring a first temperatureof an air input to the heating or cooling system, measuring a secondtemperature of an air output of the heating or cooling system,determining a delta temperature from a difference of the firsttemperature and the second temperature, and calculating a derivative ofthe delta temperature. If the derivative of the delta temperature iswithin D of zero, then the delta temperature may have reached a steadystate and may be valid for capacity comparisons. If delta temperaturehas decreased from a previously recorded value, then this decrease mayrepresent a loss of capacity. D may be a predetermined number.

The heating or cooling system may have operational properties. Theoperational properties may have parameter values that remain constantwhen the first and second temperatures are measured, and the deltatemperature may be determined from the first and second temperatures.

The operational properties may be at least one or more items selectedfrom a group incorporating a number of active stages, air flow rate,outdoor dry bulb temperature, mixed air wet bulb temperature, and mixedair dry bulb temperature. When the operational properties change, theymay cause a change in capacity without degradation of capacity of theheating or cooling system.

The first temperature and the second temperature detectors may measuredry bulb temperatures of air.

The approach may further incorporate providing a warning alert if thechange of the delta temperature from a previously recorded readingexceeds a predetermined value indicated by N, that indicates a decreasein capacity of the heating or cooling system. N may be a number.

The measuring of a first temperature may be achieved from a first sensorsituated at the air input. The measuring of a second temperature may beachieved from a second sensor situated in the air output. Thedetermining the delta temperature may be provided by a processorconnected to the first and second sensors. The calculating thederivative of the delta temperature may be with the processor.

The processor may provide an alert that warns of a decrease in capacityof X or more percent of a predetermined reference capacity of theheating or cooling system. X may be a predetermined number.

Upon starting the heating or cooling system, the first temperature andthe second temperature may have a delta temperature that becomesconstant in value when reaching a time T, however time T can vary fromsystem to system and also within the same system depending onoperational and environmental factors. A derivative of the deltatemperature may be calculated to determine when the delta temperature isconstant in that it has reached a steady state. If the derivative ofdelta temperature is less than a value N, then the heating or coolingsystem may be deemed to be operating at a steady state for a currentmode of the system. If a steady state delta temperature for a particularmode is less than P percent of a previously recorded reference value,then the heating or cooling system may be deemed to be operating at lessthan full capacity.

If the delta temperature changes in value of N percent after a time T,then an alert may be provided indicating that the heating or coolingsystem is operating at a capacity less than the full capacity. N, P andT may be predetermined numbers.

An alerting mechanism relative to a capacity change of a heating orcooling system, may incorporate a first temperature sensor at an airinput of a heat or cooling system, a second temperature sensor at an airoutput of a heat or cooling system, and a processor connected to thefirst temperature sensor and the second temperature sensor. Theprocessor may determine a delta temperature between a first temperatureindicated by the first temperature sensor and a second temperatureindicated by the second temperature sensor. The processor may calculatea derivative of the delta temperature. A derivative of the deltatemperature may be calculated and may be a value indicating deltatemperature has reached steady state. Operational properties of theheating or cooling system that when changed may affect the deltatemperature without a degradation of a capacity of the heating orcooling system, may be kept constant.

If a value of a steady state delta temperature is the same as apreviously recorded reference, then a change in capacity of the heatingor cooling system may be zero.

A value of a steady state delta temperature less than a previouslyrecorded reference, may indicate a change in the capacity of the heatingor cooling system.

If the capacity of the heating system has decreased according to thederivative of the delta temperature, then an amount of a decrease ofcapacity may be determined by a magnitude of the value of the derivativeof delta temperature.

If a decrease of capacity is at least X percent, then an alert may beprovided by the processor. X may be a predetermined number.

To recap, a system with analytics may incorporate a controller, andequipment. The equipment may be selected from a group comprising heatexchangers, heating or cooling systems, HVAC, fire, security, lighting,video, air control, and audio systems. An illustrative example HVACequipment for illustrative purposes may be selected. The controller mayhave configuration data about the HVAC equipment. The configuration datamay incorporate descriptions about types of the HVAC equipment andsubsystems of the HVAC equipment. The configuration data may be used bythe system to determine which fault detection algorithms are relevant tothe types of HVAC equipment and the subsystems of HVAC equipment.

The system may further incorporate a cloud system connected to thecontroller. The cloud system may provide the fault detection algorithmsrelevant to the types of HVAC equipment and the subsystems of HVACequipment.

The fault detection algorithms may incorporate pre-defined triggerconditions. If the trigger conditions are met of a fault detectionalgorithm for one or more types of the HVAC equipment and subsystems ofthe HVAC equipment, then the cloud system may automatically start thefault detection algorithm for the one or more types of the HVACequipment and subsystems of the HVAC equipment.

The fault detection algorithm may then act on runtime and operationaldata from the one or more types of the HVAC equipment and subsystems ofthe HVAC equipment.

An approach for triggering analytics may incorporate configuring athermostat for control of a specific heating or cooling equipment,triggering analytics by inference of details of the specific heating orcooling equipment from a configuration of the thermostat, discoveringvirtually all controllers for specific heating or cooling equipment, andreading configuration data pertinent to heating or cooling equipmentfrom the controllers.

Discovering the controllers may be performed with a cloud gatewaydevice.

The approach may further incorporate deriving a configuration from theconfiguration data, sending the configuration to an analyticsinfrastructure device, and sending operational data from the thermostatto the analytics infrastructure device.

The approach may further incorporate a gateway using a pre-definedtemplate of a controller to automatically identify a list ofconfiguration and operation points to be read from the controller.

The approach may further incorporate comparing the configuration againststandard heating or cooling equipment templates.

The approach may further incorporate identifying a specific subset ofthe heating or cooling equipment, and looking up analytics algorithmsfor the specific subset of the heating or cooling equipment.

The approach may further incorporate starting an instance of theanalytics algorithms, and feeding respective operational data to theanalytics algorithms.

The approach may further incorporate defining templates for the heatingor cooling equipment.

The approach may further incorporate mapping configuration parameters toattributes of the templates for the heating or cooling equipment, anddefining analytic algorithms for the specific heating or coolingequipment from the templates for the heating or cooling equipment.

The thermostat, the heating or cooling equipment, and the controllersmay be of a light commercial building system (LCBS).

A system for inferring, for an illustrative example of HVAC equipment,HVAC equipment details from a controller configuration, may incorporatean HVAC controller, and specific HVAC equipment connected to the HVACcontroller. The HVAC controller may be configured for control of thespecific HVAC equipment.

The system may further incorporate a cloud gateway device. The cloudgateway device may discover virtually all controllers. Configurationdata about the specific HVAC equipment may be read from the controllersusing pre-defined templates that are present in the cloud gatewaydevice.

Pre-defined templates used by the cloud gateway device to decide the setof configuration and operational data to be read from the controllersmay be provided to the cloud gateway device from a cloud or analyticsinfrastructure.

The system may further incorporate an analytics infrastructure device.The configuration data may be read from the controllers discovered bythe cloud gateway device, and sent as a configuration to the analyticsinfrastructure device. Operational data from the HVAC controller may besent to the analytics infrastructure device.

The analytics infrastructure device may be cloud/server hosted. Theconfiguration may be compared against standard HVAC equipment templatesto identify a specific subset of HVAC equipment.

Analytics algorithms for the specific subset of HVAC equipment may belooked up with the analytics infrastructure device. An instance of theanalytics algorithms may be started. Operational data respective to thespecific subset of the HVAC equipment may be fed to the instance of theanalytics algorithms. HVAC equipment templates may be defined.Configuration parameters may be mapped to attributes of the HVACequipment templates. Analytic algorithms specific to the HVAC equipmentmay be defined.

To recap, an equipment continuity system may incorporate heating orcooling equipment, a first controller connected to the heating orcooling equipment, and a recorder connected to the first controller. Therecorder may receive and log data from the first controller. The firstcontroller may be replaceable with a second controller. If the firstcontroller is replaced with the second controller, the recorder mayreceive and log data from the second controller. The data from thesecond controller may be merged with the data from the first controller.

A merging of data from the first controller and the second controllerinto one series of data may be done automatically to ensure continuityof data for the heating or cooling equipment.

A merging of the data from the first and second controllers may beautomatic on a cloud connected to the first and second controllers inthat order.

An approach for retaining continuity of operational data of equipment,may incorporate installing a first controller, configuring the firstcontroller for control of specific equipment, replacing the firstcontroller with a second controller, and configuring the secondcontroller for controlling the specific equipment. An illustrativeexample of equipment may be HVAC equipment and specific HVAC equipment.

The approach may further incorporate identifying the first controllerand the second controller.

The identifying the first and second controllers may be performed with auser interface on a web, cloud or supervisory device.

The approach may further incorporate identifying and mapping the firstand second controllers. The identifying and mapping of the first andsecond controllers may be done using a unique naming or addressingscheme in the controllers.

The approach may further incorporate confirming that operational datafrom the first and second controllers represent the same specific HVACequipment.

The approach may further incorporate deleting duplicate instances of thespecific HVAC equipment in a database common to the first and secondcontrollers.

The approach may further incorporate copying data from the first andsecond controllers to a single instance of the specific HVAC equipment,and notifying analytics algorithms to obtain a new data set for thespecific HVAC equipment.

A new ID and operational data of the second controller may beautomatically mapped to the specific HVAC equipment.

Operational data from the first controller may be merged withoperational data from the second controller.

A system for inferring equipment details from controller configurationdetails, may incorporate a thermostat/controller, and specific heatingor cooling equipment. The thermostat/controller may configured for thespecific heating or cooling equipment control.

The system may further incorporate a cloud gateway device. Virtually allcontrollers may be discovered. Configuration data may be read from thecontrollers.

The system may further incorporate an analytics infrastructure device.The configuration data read from the controllers may be sent to theanalytics infrastructure device. Operational data may be read from thecontroller to the analytics infrastructure device.

The system may further incorporate an analytics infrastructurecloud/server hosted. The configuration may be compared against standardHVAC equipment templates. A specific subset of heating or coolingequipment may be identified.

A list of heating or cooling equipment mapped to respective controllerIDs may be created and stored. Operational data received from acontroller under heating or cooling equipment may be mapped and stored.The operational data may be fed to respective analytics algorithms.

An old controller, and a new controller replacing the old controller maybe identified from a user interface. Operational data from the oldcontroller and operational data from the new controller may representthe same heating or cooling equipment.

Duplicate instances of HVAC equipment in a database may be deleted.Operational data from the old controller and the new controller may becopied and mapped to a single instance of heating or cooling equipment.

Analytic algorithms may be notified to pick a new data set for a givenheating or cooling equipment.

To recap, a system that registers a gateway with a building account, mayincorporate a gateway, and an internet connected to the gateway. Aninternet protocol (IP) address for the gateway may be acquired for thegateway through dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP). The gatewaymay be authenticated with a cloud application with a secretidentification (ID). A registration ID may be continuously sent to acloud until mapped to a building account.

A building account may be created from a web user interface. Theregistration ID may be added under the building account.

The registration ID entered by a user may be verified for validity. Adatabase may be updated to map the gateway to a given building account.

On a subsequent request from the gateway, credentials relevant to thebuilding account may be provided to the gateway.

Whether a registration ID entered by a user is already mapped to adifferent building may be verified.

The user may be prompted to push a button on the gateway to proveownership. The cloud application may wait for a period of time toreceive a push button command from the gateway.

The user may pushes a re-register button on the gateway. A button pressmay be verified using light sources on the gateway.

Registration may be authenticated with a cloud application with a secretID. A push button message may be sent to a cloud along with aregistration ID.

Whether the registration ID received in the push button message matchesthe registration ID entered by the user, may be verified.

The mapping of the gateway of an old building may be removed andre-mapped to a new building in the database.

The user may be notified about a successful mapping of the gateway to abuilding account.

An approach for registering a gateway, may incorporate connecting agateway to an internet and acquiring an IP address, obtaining aregistration ID, creating a first building account from a user interfaceof the internet, and entering the registration ID under the firstbuilding account.

The approach may further incorporate creating a second building accountfrom a user interface of the internet, and entering the registration IDunder the second building account.

The approach may further incorporate verifying that the registration IDis mapped to the second building.

The approach may further incorporate pushing a button on the gateway toprove ownership, receiving a push button command from the gateway,pushing a re-register button on the gateway, verifying a button pressingwith a light on the gateway, authenticating registration with a secretID, and sending a push button message along with the registration ID.

The approach may further incorporate removing a mapping of the gatewayfrom the first building account, and mapping the gateway to the secondbuilding account.

The approach may further incorporate notifying a user about a successfulmapping of the gateway to the second building account.

A structure having a gateway may incorporate one or more protocoltranslators, and a mechanism with DHCP addressing connected to the oneor more protocol translators. When the gateway is powered up andconnected to a net port, the gateway may automatically acquire an IPaddress. After acquiring an IP address, the gateway may automaticallyconnect to a designated cloud and identify itself. The gateway may beshipped with a registration code.

One may type in a code under its cloud entry. Upon entering theregistration code, one may associate the gateway to one's account.

When a new person attempts to add the gateway to its account, afterentering the registration code, the person may be challenged to proveaccess. The gateway may have a push button to be pressed for transfer ofthe gateway to a different account as part of a workflow. The pushbutton press may be valid only when performed as part of the workflow,to ensure that just the person who has access to the gateway cantransfer the gateway to its account.

Any publication or patent document noted herein is hereby incorporatedby reference to the same extent as if each individual publication orpatent document was specifically and individually indicated to beincorporated by reference.

In the present specification, some of the matter may be of ahypothetical or prophetic nature although stated in another manner ortense.

Although the present system and/or approach has been described withrespect to at least one illustrative example, many variations andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art uponreading the specification. It is therefore the intention that theappended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible in view of therelated art to include all such variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system with analytics comprising: a controller;and equipment; wherein: the controller has configuration data about theequipment; the configuration data incorporates descriptions about typesof the equipment and subsystems of the equipment; the configuration dataare used by the system to determine which fault detection algorithms arerelevant to the types of equipment and the subsystems of equipment; andthe equipment is selected from a group comprising HVAC, security, fire,lighting, video, air control, and audio systems.
 2. The system of claim1, further comprising: a cloud system connected to the controller; andwherein the cloud system provides the fault detection algorithmsrelevant to the types of equipment and the subsystems of equipment. 3.The system of claim 2, wherein: the fault detection algorithms comprisepre-defined trigger conditions; and if the trigger conditions are met ofa fault detection algorithm for one or more types of the equipment andsubsystems of the equipment, then the cloud system automatically startsthe fault detection algorithm for the one or more types of the equipmentand subsystems of the equipment.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein thefault detection algorithm then acts on runtime and operational data fromthe one or more types of the equipment and subsystems of the equipment.5. A method for triggering analytics comprising: configuring athermostat for control of a specific heating or cooling equipment;triggering analytics by inference of details of the specific heating orcooling equipment from a configuration of the thermostat; discoveringvirtually all controllers for specific heating or cooling equipment; andreading configuration data pertinent to heating or cooling equipmentfrom the controllers.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein discovering thecontrollers is performed with a cloud gateway device.
 7. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising: deriving a configuration from theconfiguration data; sending the configuration to an analyticsinfrastructure device; and sending operational data from the thermostatto the analytics infrastructure device.
 8. The method of claim 5 furthercomprising a gateway using a pre-defined template of a controller toautomatically identify a list of configuration and operation points tobe read from the controller.
 9. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising comparing the configuration against standard heating orcooling equipment templates.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: identifying a specific subset of the heating or coolingequipment; and looking up analytics algorithms for the specific subsetof the heating or cooling equipment.
 11. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising: starting an instance of the analytics algorithms; andfeeding respective operational data to the analytics algorithms.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising defining templates for theheating or cooling equipment.
 13. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising: mapping configuration parameters to attributes of thetemplates for the heating or cooling equipment; and defining analyticalgorithms for the specific heating or cooling equipment from thetemplates for the heating or cooling equipment.
 14. The method of claim5, wherein the thermostat, the heating or cooling equipment, and thecontrollers are of a light commercial building system (LCBS).
 15. Asystem for inferring HVAC equipment details from a controllerconfiguration, comprising: an HVAC controller; and specific HVACequipment connected to the HVAC controller; and wherein the HVACcontroller is configured for control of the specific HVAC equipment. 16.The system of claim 15, further comprising: a cloud gateway device; andwherein: the cloud gateway device discovers virtually all controllers;and configuration data about the specific HVAC equipment are read fromthe controllers using pre-defined templates that are present in thecloud gateway device.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein pre-definedtemplates used by the cloud gateway device to decide the set ofconfiguration and operational data to be read from the controllers areprovided to the cloud gateway device from a cloud or analyticsinfrastructure.
 18. The system of claim 16, further comprising: ananalytics infrastructure device; and wherein: the configuration data areread from the controllers discovered by the cloud gateway device, andsent as a configuration to the analytics infrastructure device; andoperational data from the HVAC controller are sent to the analyticsinfrastructure device.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein: theanalytics infrastructure device is cloud/server hosted; and theconfiguration is compared against standard HVAC equipment templates toidentify a specific subset of HVAC equipment.
 20. The system of claim19, wherein: analytics algorithms for the specific subset of HVACequipment are looked up with the analytics infrastructure device; aninstance of the analytics algorithms is started; operational datarespective to the specific subset of the HVAC equipment are fed to theinstance of the analytics algorithms; HVAC equipment templates aredefined; configuration parameters are mapped to attributes of the HVACequipment templates; and analytic algorithms specific to the HVACequipment are defined.